The Wesmen men’s volleyball team had a tough weekend, dropping two matches to the visiting University of British Columbia (UBC) Thunderbirds, who picked up their first regular season win on Friday, Nov. 12.

Winnipeg challenged the Thunderbirds and took the first set of both matches. On Friday night, the Wesmen dropped the second set, 25-18, but came back to challenge the Thunderbirds in the third set. UBC finished the set strong, and took the win 25-23. In the last set, the two teams battled back and forth, but again, UBC finished on top.

First-year player Dominique Pereira knows his team needed to step up their defense against UBC to grab the win.

“We came out strong and played well as a unit, but throughout the game UBC was better defensively and because of that they came out on top,” Pereira commented.

On Saturday, Nov. 13, the Wesmen took the first set, 25-20. In the second set, they led into the first technical timeout, 8-7. Winnipeg lost the lead by the second technical timeout, and dropped the set, 17-25.

Fifth-year captain Dan Lother was frustrated with Saturday’s results.

“We wasted an opportunity,” he said. “We gave ourselves a decent chance to win but didn’t play consistent enough to win at this level.”

Despite the losses, second-year Matt Stubler believes that the new players are learning how to compete at the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) level, and the team has begun to come together.

“We are starting to take steps forward,” he said. “If we continue to put in the work, the wins will come.”
Coach Larry McKay agrees.

“We showed stretches of play where we were good,” he commented. “Our improvement continues this week in practice.”

Winnipeg was led by Marc Ross and Devin Schmidt, who both had 10 kills, as well as setter Dan Lother, who had 11 digs. 

Next weekend, the Wesmen will host the Saskatchewan Huskies in the Duckworth Centre. They take on the Huskies at 6 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 19 and 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 20.